Added several terrific pictures send by Steven B and Stephen M, including some of the early Blue Room and Oval Office and some of the family quarters in the Reagan and Kennedy eras. Thanks guys!
UPDATE: I hereby award John in NOLA and Dennis the JB West Attention to Detail Award.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great bunch of pictures! I especially like the one of the Oval Office through the door,in the 1920's.
ReplyDeleteNow I don't want to offend anyone, but the picture identified as "Drawing of the Blue Room around 1853 (Walworth plumbing advertisement)" is in actuality an engraving of McKinley's Blue Room - see Seale's The White House, The History of an American Idea, pages 168-169. Those grilles at the top of the windows and the lowered curtain rods are from that era. Also, the neo-classical plaster festoons in the frieze circling the room and the "colonial" overmantle mirror are all manifestations of Very, very early "Colonial Revival" decorating, just before McKim and Teddy Roosevelt set loose a Beaux-Arts/Classical/Colonial tornado, in 1902.
Blah, blah, blah, Colonial Revival - blah, blah...blah, blah... Beaux-Arts... Somebody stop me before I write an 800-page book on Latrobe, or something... : )
Good save, John! Now why didn't I catch that?
ReplyDeleteI really like the photo of the Blue Room with the Victrola, a combination of the elegant and the mundane, so to speak. The wall covering and drapes look sharp.
That Victrola is cool! It looks sort of "Great Gatsbyish".
ReplyDeleteAhhh, yes. The advertisement referenced 1853. I checked pictures from later years and didn't see a match, but I foolishly didn't go all the way to 1898. Please accept this JB West Attention to Detail award as a token of my esteem. Dennis also wins the "Westie" retroactively for distinguished service in the face of inaccuracy.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that y'all care so much about being so accurate in
ReplyDeleteyour discussions about The White House. It is so important to be correct in identifying the correct historical period in decor and lifestyle. Just think, someday, others not yet born will discuss our times. Every generation likes to think that they will be remembered. It is the serious historical scholars that make this dream come true!
I thank you, my mother thanks you, and James Hoban thanks you......
ReplyDeleteWell, as a serious historical scholar (ahem...) I just want to say that I hope this award will help advance the cause of World Peace and Harmony.
ReplyDelete